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May the L-force be with you

01 May, 2004

May the L-force be with you

Lenze has unveiled a new generation of drives technologies - spanning everything from motors, through drives, controls and safety functions, to programming software. The first elements of the L-force family made their debuts at the Hannover Fair, although some were still at the prototype stage and may take a while to reach the market.

Perhaps the most striking members of the family are the odd-shaped single- and multi-axis controllers (above) whose axis modules plug into a backplane that accommodates the power electronics and all of the power supply and motor connections. There are also plug-in safety modules for duties such as emergency stops. The controllers, which will span ratings from 370W-400kW, are not expected to go on sale before next year.

Before then, various synchronous and asynchronous motors and gearmotors should be available, based on existing Lenze designs but incorporating upgrades such as "electronic nameplates". As soon as a motor is plugged into an axis, the controller will read the data from the nameplate and configure the axis automatically.

Another L-force element on show in a prototype form at Hannover was an graphic-based software suite called Engineer, designed to configure all of a machine`s motion and process sequences. Run-time software will provide functions such as; speed and torque control; electronic gearboxes and camming; register control; positioning; and a soft-PLC conforming to IEC 61131-3.




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